There will be times when it seems like the whole world is paired off like Noah’s Arc, parading around in their perfect l

Except maybe, just maybe, you’ll find hope in the words. Maybe you’ll find it there in the letters and these syllables and the sentences that I’ve strung together. If you’re in the season of waiting for your forever human, the one who you wish to grow old with, the person you want to call home and your greatest adventure, perhaps finding hope within these words will stop you from quitting.,For me, the payoff wasn’t there anymore. It hadn’t been for years. That’s why I longed to be sober. At 33 I’d done the party years, the pub years and the student years to death. I was sick of chatting shite and chain-smoking when I would rather read a book and have an early night. I was desperate for something else. And yet, I kept getting drunk.,Except maybe, just maybe, you’ll find hope in the words. Maybe you’ll find it there in the letters and these syllables and the sentences that I’ve strung together. If you’re in the season of waiting for your forever human, the one who you wish to grow old with, the person you want to call home and your greatest adventure, perhaps finding hope within these words will stop you from quitting.,Sometimes I think there’s no way I would have managed to quit drinking if I’d known what it entailed. Sometimes I wish I’d known what was coming as it would have spurred me on. The truth is that for some people, their life will still be difficult long after they quit drinking.,It was tough at first. In my first year, I had to entirely reimagine what fun was. That’s how far I was from having any. I had to let go of the cool and silly and spontaneous drinking persona I had enjoyed (and hidden inside) for so long.,You think you’re giving up booze, but actually, you’re becoming another kind of person. The new you might need a less stressful job. A more supportive partner. A less hectic weekend routine. It isn’t the same for everybody, but that’s how it went for me.,A frequent argument by PC diehards in response to impressive benchmarks was that “well… these are just synthetic benchmarks and not real applications.” That excuse does not carry much weight anymore either. We have started seeing a string of tests of real world applications and they are equally impressive.,And yet, my understanding will not make the sting of the loneliness and longing any less. There aren’t any words that I can string together to make the pain you’re holding any easier, either.,As a kid, it looked like adult life was rubbish. I didn’t want any part of it. And so I felt no pressure or urgency to grow up. I was allergic to responsibility and determined to avoid it for as long as I could.,In early sobriety, you need to be surrounded by people that understand why it’s important you don’t drink. And you need a job that matches your energy levels now you can’t use wine to get you through.,The process of getting sober, and doing the work required to stay that way, allowed me to see that I was incredibly, shockingly, embarrassingly immature. Some of my ideas and beliefs hadn’t been reappraised since I was fifteen or sixteen. Many of them no longer served me. Some of them actively worked against me.,We don’t all have the same burdens, psychological profiles, traumatic histories. In fact, the only way you’ll know if your life would be better sober is if you try it. For at least a couple of years. Okay, maybe five. Trust me, it takes a while to get clarity.,I’ve winced at wedding invitations, avoided dinner parties, and wondered how I could not attend another bridal shower without hurting the people I loved while still keeping my own heart intact. I told myself more than once that perhaps the forever kind of love I wished for and hoped for and prayed for was not in the cards for me.,Once created, these types of websites mostly need backend maintenance such as testing and fixing bugs. There may be occasional design updates but the design might not change much visually to the user until there is a significant rebrand. Most social media companies have their own in-house design team that works on design and development but you may have the opportunity to collaborate as a contract designer.,Personally, I found all this change exciting, because — spoiler alert — before I quit drinking I was miserable. That’s why I quit. But not everybody quits because they’re unhappy (apparently.) The sober curious crowd do it for the perks. Others do it as part of their spiritual path.